D/T
Design Technology Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement
Intent
At Eccleston St. Mary’s CE Primary School, Design and Technology is fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to:
- Fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Design and Technology.
- Provide a broad and balanced curriculum.
- Ensure the progressive development of knowledge and skills.
- Enable children to learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens through evaluation of past and present design and technology.
- Develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world
- Prepare children to be able to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world using the language of design and technology.
The aims of teaching Design and Technology in our school are to:
- Develop technical, imaginative and creative thinking in children and to develop confidence to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world.
- Enable children to talk about how things work and to develop their technical knowledge.
- Apply a growing body of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make prototypes and products for a wide range of users.
- Encourage children to select appropriate tools and techniques when making a product, whilst following safe procedures
- Empower children to be inspired by engineers, designers, chefs and architects to enable them to create a range of structures, mechanisms, textiles and food products with a real life purpose.
- Develop an understanding of technological processes and products, their manufacture and their contribution to our society.
- Foster enjoyment, satisfaction and purpose in designing and making things.
- Critique, evaluate and test their ideas and products, and the work of others.
- Understand and apply the principles of nutrition and to learn how to cook.
- Understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world.
Implementation
Our DT curriculum is progressive throughout the school and is taught as part of a termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. At St Mary’s we follow the children’s interests to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced. A variety of teaching approaches are used based on the teacher’s judgement.
We use our progression of knowledge and skills documents to plan and to ensure the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.
At St Mary’s, we provide a variety of opportunities for design and technology learning to take place inside and outside the classroom. Links with industries, STEMfirst and a local restaurant enable us to provide real life experiences for the children to ask questions, design, create, make and evaluate products. Enrichment days offer an opportunity for parents to engage with school and participate with their children’s learning.
Educational visits are another opportunity where the children at St Mary’s have many opportunities to experience design and technology. The children have visited local museums, food establishments and had visitors into school to share learning and have hands on experiences.
Alongside our curriculum provision for Design and Technology, we also provide KS1 and KS2 children with the opportunity to participate in DT/STEM based after school clubs.
Impact
Within Design and Technology, we strive to prepare children to take part in the development of tomorrow’s rapidly changing world. We aim to encourage children to become creative problem-solvers, both as individuals and as part of a team.
Through the study of Design and Technology, children combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetic, social and environmental issues, as well as of functions and industrial practices. This allows them to reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and its impact.
Our Design and Technology curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discrete vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Ongoing monitoring of children’s understanding, knowledge and skills by the class teacher throughout lessons to inform differentiation, support and challenge required by the children.
- Summative assessment across each year group to inform the subject leader of progress or skills and knowledge still to be embedded.
- Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
- Interviewing the children about their learning and understanding (pupil voice).
- Lesson visits and book monitoring to establish the impact of the teaching taking place.
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.